Self- Discipline
Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47-48; Acts 1:8;
2 Timothy 1:6-7; 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 1 Peter 1:13
August 16, 2003
I. I will say it again, we are all leaders in some way and if we are going to be the leaders that we are supposed to be, the first person that we have to lead is ourselves.
A. The Philosopher Plato said, "The first and best victory is to conqueror self."
B. That means that the victory that we have to win before win can win any other is the victory over ourselves. We have to learn self-discipline.
C. It is tough getting to the top, and not many people ever reach the place where they are considered the best at what they do, and even fewer people are considered by a lot of people to be the best ever.
D. But someone who has, is Jerry Rice. Jerry Rice has been called the best person to ever play wide receiver in professional football, and he has got all the records to prove it.
E. People who know him say he is a natural. Physically, his God-given gifts are incredible. He has what every coach would want in a receiver.
F. Hall of Fame Coach Bill Walsh says, "I don’t think that there’s been a guy equal to him physically."
G. But his physical ability alone is not what has made him great. The real key to his success has been his self-discipline.
H. Jerry Rice works day in and day out to prepare for football unlike any other player in the NFL.
I. The story of his ability to push himself started when he was in high school. The Coach of B.L. Moor High School, Charles Davis, had his players run twenty times up a forty-yard hill. On a particularly hot, muggy Mississippi day, Jerry Rice was ready to give up after eleven times, but as he started to sneak toward the locker room he realized what he was doing.
J. "Don’t quit" he told himself. "Because if you get into that mode of quitting, then you feel like it’s okay." He went back and finished his sprints, and he has never been a quitter since.
K. As a Professional football player, he has become famous for sprinting up another hill. This one is a tough 2.5 mile uphill park trail in San Carlos, California. Other top players try to keep up with him but they fall behind and are amazed at his stamina.
L. But that’s only a part of his routine. When other players are fishing and laying around during the off season Jerry Rice works out from seven in the morning until noon six days a week.
M. Somebody said once, "He is so well conditioned that he makes Jamie Lee Curtis look James Earl Jones."
N. NFL corner back Kevin Smith says, what other people don’t understand is that football is a twelve month thing with Jerry Rice. That’s the difference between the good and the great.
O. On August 31, 1997, Jerry Rice blew out his knee, and people thought that he was finished. Rod Woodson was the only player that had ever come back from a knee injury in the same season. He rehabilitated his knee in four and a half months. Jerry Rice did it in three and half months, and he continues to rack up records while he helps his team win.
P. Jerry rice is the perfect example of the difference between the good and the great, and that’s because he is the perfect example of self-discipline.
Q. No one ever achieves or maintains greatness without SELF-DISCIPLINE.
R. No matter how gifted a leader is, his gifts will never reach their maximum potential without self-discipline.
II. So what are some things that we can do to make self-discipline an asset in our life?
A. DEVELOP AND FOLLOW YOUR PRIORITIES.
1. Anyone who does what they have to, only when they are in the mood, or when it is convenient will not be SUCCESSFUL.
2. And, people won’t follow someone with that attitude.
3. Someone once said, "To do important tasks two things are necessary; a plan and not quite enough TIME."
4. If you are a really a leader, I am sure that you have one of those handled already. You don’t have enough time, so all you need now is a plan.
5. If you can settle what is really important and release yourself from other things, it’s a lot easier to follow through on what is IMPORTANT, and that is the main principle of self-discipline.
B. MAKE A DISCIPLINED LIFESTYLE YOUR GOAL.
1. When we talk about any highly disciplined person like Jerry Rice, it should make us realize that to be successful, self-discipline can’t be a one time event. It has to be a LIFESTYLE.
2. One of the ways to do that is to develop SYSTEMS and ROUTINES, especially in areas that are crucial to our long-term growth and success.
3. People who have heart trouble can’t exercise one day to insure their health for the rest of their life, it is something that they have to do every day for the rest of their lives.
4. As leaders, we have to develop into our daily lives ways to keep ourselves on track.
C. CHALLENGE YOUR EXCUSES.
1. To develop self-discipline, one of the first things that has to be done is examine, challenge, and eliminate any tendency to make EXCUSES.
2. A French writer once said, "Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we think up to HIDE them."
3. If you have several reasons that you can’t be self-disciplined, then force yourself to realize that they are just EXCUSES.
4. And they all have to be challenged if you want to be the leader that you should be in your family, at work, and in serving God.
5. Everyone of us who are Christians know that we’re suppose to come here to worship, and we know that we are to be involved in reaching people with the message that God loves them and wants them to be with Him, and we all know that we are to serve God and care for other people, but a lot of the time we allow ourselves excuses that don’t hold water.
6. I’m too busy, I’m too tired, I’m to stressed, etc... Well if you are too anything to take your responsibility to God and others seriously enough to challenge your excuses and be disciplined, then you’re just too whatever it is that keeps you from doing what you know should be a priority.
7. Excuses are like arm pits, they usually smell good when you start, but after a while, they all stink.
D. REMOVE REWARDS UNTIL THE JOB IS DONE.
1. Author Mike Delaney once wisely said, "Any business or industry that pays equal rewards to is goof-offs and its eager beavers, sooner or later will find itself with more goof-offs than eager beavers."
2. If you lack self-discipline you may be in the habit of having dessert before you eat your VEGETABLES.
3. There was an elderly couple who had been at a campground for a couple of days when a family pulled in to the camp site next to them. As soon as their vehicle came to a stop, the couple and their three kids piled out.
4. One child hurriedly unloaded ice chests, backpacks, and other stuff while the other two put up the tents. The camp site was ready in fifteen minutes.
5. The older couple was amazed. "You folks sure do work together great," the elderly man told the father with admiration.
6. The dad said, "You just need a system; nobody goes to the bathroom until the camp is set up."
E. STAY FOCUSED ON RESULTS!
1. Anytime that you concentrate on how hard the work is going to be instead of what the results or the rewards are, you’re likely to become DISCOURAGED.
2. If you dwell on how hard things could be to do, you develop self pity instead of self-discipline.
3. I try really hard to always focus on what the benefits of something are when I have a hard task to finish.
4. The thing that motivates me is usually that if I get the work done, I can play. Sometimes it might be if I can get the work done then I‘ll have the money to play.
5. Football players have to work hard in long practices in the preseason, but the reward is getting to play the game. We can’t focus on how hard something is; we have to focus on what the REWARDS of being self- disciplined are going to be.
6. In our service to God, the price tag is much more than that. If we get the work done, people will spend eternity in heaven; if we don’t, they won’t. That is not to say that whether people go to heaven or not is solely dependent on us, because it is not; but our being obedient to serve God, and reach out to and care for people is absolutely a factor.
(Mat 28:19 - 20 NIV) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
(Mark 16:15 NIV) He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
(Luke 24:47 - 48 NIV) and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
(Acts 1:8 NIV) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
7. As Christians, we have to face the fact that we are God’s link to the world, and if we excuse ourselves from serving God, then ETERNITY for somebody is very likely the price.
8. The next time you are facing something that has to be done, and you’re thinking about doing what is convenient instead of paying the price, change your FOCUS.
9. Count the benefits of doing what’s right and then dive in. The next time you’re thinking of doing what’s convenient instead of what needs to be done in your service to God, think about what the PRICE is for you and the people that God wants to use you to reach.
F. Author H. Jackson Brown once said, "Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if its going to be forward, backwards, or sideways."
1. We all have talents and abilities, because God has given them to us all, so if you have talent, and you’ve seen a lot of motion, but little in the way of results, you may lack self-discipline.
2. Look at your schedule. How much time did you devote to regular DISCIPLINED activity. How much of your time did you devote to your service to God?
3. Do you do anything to grow and improve YOURSELF? Did you dedicate part of your income to savings or investments?
4. Did you do anything today to GROW and IMPROVE in your relationship with God? Did you do anything to SERVE God, or improve your ability to serve God? Did you dedicate part of your income to giving BACK to God?
5. Have you been putting off those things and saying that you will do them later or finding ways to excuse yourself from doing them? If you have, then you need to take a long look at how SELF-DISCIPLINED you are.
III. So how can we improve our self-discipline?
A. SORT OUT YOUR PRIORITIES!
1. Think about which two or three areas of life are or should be most important to you, and I can help you start. God and your RELATIONSHIP and SERVICE to Him should be on the top of that list.
2. Write down a list, along with the disciplines that you have to develop to keep growing and improving in them.
3. Make a PLAN to make those disciplines a daily part of your life.
B. LIST THE REASONS.
1. Take the time to WRITE out the benefits of practicing the disciplines that you have just decided that you need to follow.
2. Then hang them up somewhere that you will see them EVERY day.
3. On the days that you don’t want to follow through, RE-READ your list.
C. GET RID OF EXCUSES.
1. Excuses are nothing more than ways of not being self-disciplined.
2. Write down every reason why you might not be able to follow through with your disciplines.
3. Read through them, and dismiss them as the EXCUSES that they are.
4. Even if a reason seems legitimate, find a solution to overcome it.
5. DO NOT allow yourself any reason to QUIT or give less that your best.
D. There is a plant farm in Canada that has a sign that says " the best time to plant a tree is twenty five years ago. The second best time is today."
E. I hope that you will make the decision to plant the tree of self-discipline in your life today.
F. I hope that today you will stop, and not worry about the roast or the restaurant, and listen to God. Make a commitment to make self-discipline in your life top priority.
G. Put yourself on the line and come forward and say I am going to be more self- disciplined in my life. I am going to be more self-disciplined in my relationship with God. I am going to make my relationship with God and my service to God the number one thing in my life, and not accept any excuses.
(2 Tim 1:6 - 7NIV) For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
(1 Th 5:6 NIV) So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.
(1 Pet 1:13 NIV) Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
